In Managing Harvey’s Innings, the Mets Make an All-Star Allowance

The Mets rookie Zack Wheeler, facing the organization that drafted and developed him, was exceptional, pitching seven smooth innings, allowing three hits and three walks and striking out five Giants.Credit
Eric Risberg/Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — Ensuring a young pitcher’s vitality remains an inexact science. When the Mets decided this week that Matt Harvey, their best pitcher, would not make his final scheduled start before the All-Star break, the move seemed to raise as many questions as it answered. Organizational impulses seemed placed at odds.

Manager Terry Collins said Harvey, a 24-year-old right-hander, would not pitch Saturday against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Collins said he wanted to give Harvey, facing an innings limit this season, some additional rest to ensure he finished the year.

Collins estimated that Harvey, who was shut down last summer before the season ended, could make 14 more outings this year before hitting his maximum innings count, an inexact number within an undisclosed range. He said the team would probably have needed to skip Harvey at some point anyway, and this weekend seemed as good a time as any.

“We’ve got to get this guy somehow deep into the summer,” Collins said. “So we thought now would be the time to back him off.”

The day off will also give Harvey more time to manage a lingering blister on his index finger. This, though, seemed to represent a mostly ancillary benefit: Harvey said Wednesday that the blister was fine and that he felt healthy enough to pitch Saturday.

Harvey said he never enjoyed sitting out, but he said he understood the Mets’ thinking. He threw 170 innings last year and has pitched 130 this year. Popular baseball wisdom dictates that highly regarded talents should increase their workload no more than a third or so from the previous season. Considering this, the Mets’ decision to have him skip a start seemed reasonable.

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The Mets’ Eric Young walked, stole second, took third on an error and scored — all before the Giants recorded the game’s first out.Credit
Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

But Harvey was left available to pitch in the All-Star Game on Tuesday at Citi Field, a marquee event but one without competitive meaning, at least for the Mets. This month, Collins acknowledged that he could envision the Mets’ making minor adjustments — Harvey was at first scheduled to pitch Sunday, and moving him up a day was the plan then — to better enable him to pitch in Tuesday’s showcase.

Collins said the final decision to rest Harvey completely this weekend was not about saving him for the All-Star Game. He was asked if it represented inconsistent thinking to make him unavailable to pitch a meaningful game against a first-place team over the weekend while freeing him to appear in an exhibition three days later.

“It’s only an inning,” Collins said about Harvey’s potential participation Tuesday. He added that it would be a good thing for Harvey to get some work before the second half began.

But as any player can attest, the All-Star Game does not qualify as normal side work. The game will be a chance for the Mets to showcase the arm that best signifies their much-discussed plan for the near future. There will be a national television audience watching, and Harvey may feel compelled to show off his 100-mile-an-hour fastball.

Harvey was asked Wednesday if he viewed his readiness for the All-Star Game as a silver lining to his being skipped Saturday. He seemed to brush aside that idea.

“Yeah, but, I’m a part of this team,” he said. “Whatever helps this team the most — if that was me going nine on Saturday, and I couldn’t throw in the All-Star Game — that’s what’s important. Now that they’ve decided they want me to hold off and not throw this weekend, my next objective is being ready for the All-Star Game, obviously.”

The decision to remove Harvey from competition can be seen as odd, too, given that the Mets have been playing at a much higher standard in recent weeks. They have cobbled 16 wins from their last 25 games, and they have a chance to enter the All-Star break with considerable momentum.

They showed as much Wednesday afternoon, too, brushing aside the struggling San Francisco Giants, 7-2, to complete a three-game sweep.

The rookie right-hander Zack Wheeler, pitching against the organization that drafted and developed him, was exceptional. He pitched seven smooth innings, allowing three hits and three walks while striking out five. Wheeler did not allow a run until the seventh, when Brandon Crawford, a former teammate at Class A, laced a run-scoring single to center field.

Wheeler acknowledged last week that he would be extra motivated to face the Giants, since they had traded him.

“I was really looking forward to it,” he said. “I was lucky enough to get traded. I’m in a good situation now. I’m happy here where I’m at. Hopefully it goes forward.”

The Giants got their only other run on Tony Abreu’s sacrifice fly in the ninth.

The Mets hitters forced Matt Cain into what was, by all measures, the shortest outing of his career: 21 minutes, 7 batters, 2 outs and 36 pitches. He issued three walks, allowed two hits and gave up three runs before he was removed to polite applause.

The Mets’ offense kept rolling after Cain’s early exit. Marlon Byrd hit a two-run home run to right-center field during the fifth inning to increase the Mets’ lead to 5-0. The next inning, Wheeler and Daniel Murphy hit run-scoring doubles.

Cain was the National League starter at the All-Star Game last season. Harvey could become his successor after going 7-2 with a 2.35 earned run average and a league-high 147 strikeouts.

It would be an honor for Harvey, and a publicity boost for the Mets. But amid discussions about preserving his arm, the move also raises plenty of questions.

A version of this article appears in print on July 11, 2013, on page B15 of the New York edition with the headline: In Managing Harvey’s Innings, the Mets Make an All-Star Allowance. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe